Have you heard of Little Dog by Boston Dynamics? It's the miniature version of the famous Big Dog for military use. This robotic mule is able to transport material autonomously in hostile terrain. It's fascinating just how much this little quadruped robot looks like a real animal. The little …
RobotC is a programming language for robotics developed by the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It's based on the C language and is presented in an easy to use development environment. RobotC supports robot platforms such as the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT and FIRST VEX. RobotC …
The company iRobot has just signed a partnership with electronics manufacturer Jabil Circuit. The agreement concerns manufacturing services. Jabil will produce and test iRobot's consumer goods, which also includes the robot vacuum Roomba. Jeffrey Beck, branch manager of iRobot's domestic robot…
Robosphere is an amusement park project along the theme of robots in Europe. Located in the Neuchatel canton in Switzerland in Crêt-du-Locle (in the La Chaux-de-Fonds region beside Le Locle), the park should open in 2011 and attract tourists (and the general public), robot enthusiasts as w…
After Robovie R2 in the desktop robot version 3 weeks ago, there's now Robovie R3, a full-size version. This humanoid robot is human sized and is intended to support the elderly and handicapped. Designed by ATR and VStone, this prototype moves at a speed of 2.5 km/h and its movements have alrea…
A Chinese farmer has created a human-sized rickshaw robot which can transport him while speaking in a loudspeaker and playing music! Wu Yulu, a well-known Chinese farmer and inventor, is getting ready to show the world his robotic creations at the Expo Shangai which starts on May 1, 2010. From …
The company Festo is currently working on a prototype of a robotic elephant's trunk, via its Festo Bionic Learning Network department. The trunk, which also resembles an octopus tentacle, uses an air pressure mechanism for movements as opposed to servo motors. Provided with a grabber, it has a …
Have you ever seen a Roomba that Tweets? We've never! But, this CoolestRoomba Twitter account announces that a Roomba forgotten in the darkness of an old garage has finally found a home. Better yet, it is in the process of resuming its life and wants to talk to humans. Where? on Twitter... We…
The Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory in Stanford (VAIL) has presented to the press a prototype of a car which drives and parks all by itself. Botjunkie was on hand to report this video in which we see a Passat driving on its own and reversing in a parking lot. The ceremony took place i…
Drones come in various sizes and with various functions (transport, surveillance, combat) but often the existing planes and helicopters are still rather on the large side. Fortunately at RobotShop we've already taken a step further in surveillance with our Skybotix helicopter drone. In terms of…
Stanford University has invented a lizard robot, an improved version of its previous prototypes (Stickybot), Stickybot III. StickyBot 3 is a lizard robot (gecko) which can climb up windows thanks to its special suction cups installed on each of its feet. These suction cups are not adhesives in …
Nearly 9 million robots in the world in 2008 (8.6 million exactly). That's according to the official report by IEEE Spectrum using 2009 data from World Robotics. Of the 8.6 million, there are 7.3 million service robots (RobotShop's core business), that's 85 %, and 1.3 million industrial robots.…
Robonaut R2, the astronaut robot that we talked about in February, will take off for space at the end of this year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY-SJyS18lA NASA has confirmed that the robot built with General Motors will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in the fall of 2010 on b…
This video shows images of the Robo-One competition and mentions that the ultimate aim of combat robots is to be able to fight humans. As RD says, that's never been the goal of Robo-One. Rather, organizing robot competitions allows robotics to advance quicker. Plus, if there were fights between …
Robosoft in France has created a completely autonomous robotic car capable of transporting visitors without a driver while avoiding obstacles. The CTS, for Cybernetic Transport System, uses a hybrid GPS navigation system to make its way around and anti-collision detectors so as not to run into p…
We've just received in store the Jaguar mobile robotic development platform. This beast is a real all-terrain vehicle that can go anywhere, including up and down steps with a 45 degree angle. The platform contains the chassis and motors only. It has two tracked arms which facilitate it to move…
